Washington -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A government-appointed commission will start reviewing Thursday ways to permanently store the United States ' nuclear waste .

The Department of Energy 's Blue Ribbon Commission has been given the task of finding an alternative to the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada , which President Obama has vowed to close .

The government has spent nearly $ 10 billion studying the Yucca Mountain location , and the Obama administration estimates that ending the program will save $ 197 million in 2011 .

The Obama administration announced in January that the blue-ribbon panel would take a new look at the problem . The panel is headed by former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton and former Republican National Security adviser Brent Scowcroft . Read the commission 's charter

It is highly likely that the 15-member commission will abandon the option to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain .

It is expected to take 18 months for the commission to conclude its findings , and that is n't sitting well with several lawmakers from states with temporary nuclear waste storage sites .

House members Tuesday introduced a bipartisan resolution to block the closure of Yucca Mountain , according to media reports .

Rep. Jay Inslee , D-Washington , said the resolution calls on the Department of Energy to follow the will of Congress .

`` Keeping waste scattered across the country , or in the case of Washington State at Hanford , is no longer an option , '' Inslee said in a statement . `` We have a solution to this problem and we must move forward . ''

The Hanford facility is one of more than 100 nuclear sites across the country where about 70,000 tons of radioactive waste are stored . An estimated 2,000 tons are added every year . How federal funds are being used to clean up Hanford

After uranium has been used in a reactor , the spent fuel remains radioactive for thousands of years . It is taken out and put into a pool of water , or above ground in canisters made of concrete , steel and lead .

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the canisters are certified for up to 90 years of use , but that term may be extended .

Both supporters and opponents of nuclear power largely agree that storing the material in casks at nuclear plants is no long-term solution .

If the blue-ribbon commission decides to abandon Yucca Mountain as a nuclear storage facility , there are concerns in southern Nevada over what will be done with the site .

`` For years , there 's never been a fallback , there 's never been a plan B , '' says Michael Voegele , who 's been involved with the Yucca Mountain project for decades .

Voegele , a consultant with Nevada 's Nye County , says it was `` only recently '' that people began to discuss other possible uses for the site .

The search for future uses of Yucca only came into question , according to Voegele and others , when the Department of Energy filed a petition to withdraw its Nuclear Regulatory Commission license application for Yucca Mountain earlier this month , effectively killing the project .

The Department of Energy filed its petition to withdraw the license application with prejudice , which would prevent it from being refilled .

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has fought hard to end the Yucca Mountain project , which is unpopular with many Nevadans . He has asked the Government Accountability Office to consider alternative uses for the site . Those alternatives include national security activities and renewable energy research .

But the closure of the project could have a major economic impact in the region . Gary Hollis , the chairman of the Nye County Board of Commissioners , says closing Yucca Mountain slams the door on 4,000 construction jobs and about 1,500 permanent jobs that would have been created if the site ever got up and running .

CNN 's Brian Larch , David Mattingly and Dugald McConnell contributed to this report .

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Government panel reviewing where to store nuclear waste

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Process could take more than a year

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Panel expected to reject Yucca Mountain site

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$ 10 billion has already been spent on Yucca